Wilfried De Brouwer
Major General Wilfried De Brouwer (born 1940) is a retired Belgian Air Force officer who played a central role in the military investigation of the Belgian UFO Wave (1989-1991).
After spending twenty years as a fighter pilot in the Belgian Air Force, De Brouwer was appointed to the Strategic Planning Branch in NATO in 1983. He then became Wing Commander of the Belgian Air Force Transport Wing and, in 1989, Chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff — the position he held when the UFO wave began. Promoted to Major General in 1991, he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the Belgian Air Force, in charge of operations, planning, and human resources. After retiring in 1995, he worked for more than ten years as a consultant for the United Nations to improve UN Logistics rapid-response capabilities during emergencies.
Belgian Defense Minister Guy Coeme tasked De Brouwer with handling the UFO wave. As Chief of Operations, he coordinated the military response including the authorization of F-16 fighter scrambles on March 30-31, 1990, when radar stations confirmed unknown targets. He established the protocol requiring both police visual confirmation AND radar detection before launching interceptors. He directed close cooperation with SOBEPS (the scientific research group investigating the case), providing radar data and air activity information. De Brouwer also made inquiries to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and NATO partners, confirming that the objects were not American stealth aircraft. He held an unprecedented press conference on July 11, 1990 presenting radar data showing accelerations \"well outside the performance envelope of any known aircraft.\"
De Brouwer's transparent handling of the Belgian wave set a standard for institutional openness regarding UFO phenomena. He spoke at the 2007 National Press Club conference in Washington, D.C. (organized by Leslie Kean and James Fox) and contributed a firsthand account to Kean's influential 2010 book. He has maintained a pragmatic, fact-based approach: \"I am approaching the UAP issue in a pragmatic way. I stick to the facts and avoid extrapolations to possible extraterrestrial activities.\